Sunday, November 30, 2008

typalizer

I'm grabbing ideas from that other blog again.

Remember the Myers-Briggs personality test? It scores like this:

You get an E or an I depending on whether you have dominant extroversion or introversion.
You get an S or N depending on whether you're dominantly sensing or have introversion.
And so on with Thinking and Feeling...
and judging and perceiving.

This site:

http://www.typealyzer.com

allows you to input your blog and based on your blog word usage, breaks down your Myers-Briggs personality.

I scored an ISTP -- The Mechanics.

Here's what it says about that:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Here's the brain activity breakdown at the lower right.

The first paragraph (besides the awkward second sentence which I think is supposed to be two) pretty much fits me I think. The second paragraph -- not at all. Perhaps I tend to only blog about exciting events, such as fire-fighting. According to Wikipedia, 5.4% of Americans are ISTP.

Hmm. I've got a bunch of other blogs, I wonder if the test yields the same result. If the test works, it should yield the same response for all the others. I mean, I'm the same person writing all of these, right?

J.R. Watches Star Trek for the first time: ESTP -- The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.


Maybe this one is different because It's not all me. Maybe J.R. throws the thing over to extroversion.

The Jon Madsen Movie Commentary Podcast: The Performers -- ESFP

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.


Hmm. I was hoping that I'd score a "think" on this one rather than "feel." Perhaps I'm not an intellectual movie snob at all, but a passive victim of manipulation.

Blogging Forgotten Realms: The Performers -- ESFP

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.


Scored the same on this one as for the Movie Commentary Podcast. Perhaps the results of this one should be tossed out, because the blog is supposed to be written as several different characters. I'm glad, however, that it scored a "feel." Maybe it means we've got some real characters going on over there and not lifeless robots.

Friday, November 28, 2008

should have been posted last week...

This was an actual text conversation I had with Kristi last week!

Kristi: We're watching a chick flick if you're not doing anything. [09:01:51 PM]

Jon: I'm on my way to the Maxim fire. What movie are you watching? [09:03:10 PM]

Kristi: Ps i love you. we just saw your car at home and thought we'd invite you. Have fun. [09:05:01 PM]

Jon: Um... i love you too. Seriously, though, what movie are you watching? [09:06:32 PM]

Kristi: You're such a dork. [09:08:06 PM]

Jon: That sounds like a pretty good movie. [09:08:56 PM]

Thursday, November 27, 2008

100 reasons why high school sucked

After checking out some Google Analytics, I found myself checking out other blogs that have mentioned some of my other blogs (it really is a worldwide web, huh?). Anyway, here's one that name-dropped the J.R. Watches Star Trek blog seemingly out of nowhere. One of this girl's entries was to do the following:

A) Go to Music Outfitters.

B) In the search function, enter the year you graduated from high school. Get the list of the 100 most popular songs of that year.

C) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate, and underline or italicize your favorite.

D)Do nothing to those you don’t remember or don’t care about.

I checked her list (from 1985) and was immediately envious. Even though she claims she disliked most of the songs, I find the list overall to be pretty memorable. So it was even more disturbing when I checked out my year -- 1995. Man, I hated the music from my final year of high school! Most people my age are probably disagreeing right now. The 90s had grunge -- probably the defining musical genre of my generation. Unfortunately, A) I never appreciated grunge as much as I should have in high school and B) as this list clearly shows, there wasn't nearly enough of it in the middle of the decade. I would have welcomed a ton more grunge to this list.

Anyway, I'm about to do the little activity, but I'm doing it with changes.

Bolded are the songs I don't mind that much.

Strikethroughed are the songs I dislike/hate.

Italicized are the songs I don't remember at all.

And then just normal fonted ones are the songs that I have no feeling for one way or another.

1995

1. Gangsta's Paradise, Coolio
2. Waterfalls, TLC

3. Creep, TLC
4. Kiss From A Rose, Seal
5. On Bended Knee, Boyz II Men
6. Another Night, Real McCoy
7. Fantasy, Mariah Carey
8. Take A Bow, Madonna
9. Don't Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days), Monica
10. This Is How We Do It, Montell Jordan
11. I Know, Dionne Farris
12. Water Runs Dry, Boyz II Men
13. Freak Like Me, Adina Howard

14. Run-Around, Blues Traveler
15. I Can Love You Like That, All-4-One
16. Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?, Bryan Adams
17. Always, Bon Jovi
18. Boombastic/In The Summertime, Shaggy
19. Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Nicki French
20. You Gotta Be, Des'ree
21. You Are Not Alone, Michael Jackson
22. Hold My Hand, Hootie and The Blowfish
23. One More Chance-Stay With Me, Notorious B.I.G.
24. Here Comes The Hotstepper, Ini Kamoze
25. Candy Rain, Soul For Real

26. Let Her, w Hootie and The Blowfish
27. I Believe, Blessid Union Of Souls
28. Red Light Special, TLC
29. Runaway, Janet Jackson
30. Strong Enough, Sheryl Crow
31. Colors Of The Wind, Vanessa Williams
32. Someone To Love, Jon B.
33. Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie and The Blowfish
34. If You Love Me, Brownstone
35. In The House Of Stone And Light, Martin Page
36. I Got 5 On It, Luniz
37. Baby, Brandy

38. Run Away, Real McCoy
39. As I Lay Me Down, Sophie B. Hawkins
40. He's Mine, Mokenstef
41. December, Collective Soul
42. I'll Be There For You-You're All I Need To Get By, Method Man-Mary J. Blige
43. Shy Guy, Diana King

44. I'm The Only One, Melissa Etheridge
45. Every Little Thing I Do, Soul For Real
46. Before I Let You Go, BLACKstreet
47. Big Poppa/Warning, Notorious B.I.G.
48. Sukiyaki, 4 P.M.
49. I Wanna Be Down, Brandy

50. I'll Make Love To You, Boyz II Men
51. Dear Mama/Old School, 2Pac
52. Hold On, Jamie Walters
53. Keep Their Heads Ringin', Dr. Dre
54. The Rhythm Of The Night, Corona

55. Roll To Me, Del Amitri
56. Scream/Childhood, Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson
57. Freek'n You, Jodeci
58. I Wish, Skee-lo
59. Believe, Elton John
60. Carnival, Natalie Merchant
61. You Don't Know How It Feels, Tom Petty
62. Back For Good, Take That
63. Tootsee Roll, 69 Boyz
64. You Want This-70's Love Groove, Janet Jackson
65. Tell Me, Groove Theory
66. Can't You See, Total

67. All I Wanna Do, Sheryl Crow
68. This Lil' Game We Play, Subway
69. Come And Get Your Love, Real McCoy
70. This Ain't A Love Song, Bon Jovi

71. Secret, Madonna
72. Player's Anthem, Junior M.A.F.I.A.
73. Feel Me Flow, Naughty By Nature
74. Every Day Of The Week, Jade
75. The Sweetest Days, Vanessa Williams
76. Short Dick Man, 20 Fingers Featuring Gillette
77. Brokenhearted, Brandy

78. No More "I Love You's", Annie Lennox
79. You Used To Love Me, Faith Evans
80. Constantly, Immature

81. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, U2
82. 100% Pure Love, Crystal Waters
83. Ask Of You, Raphael Saadiq
84. Sugar Hill, Az

85. Good, Better Than Ezra
86. Brown Sugar, D'angelo
87. Turn The Beat Around, Gloria Estefan
88. 'Til You Do Me Right, After 7
89. 1st Of Tha Month, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
90. Like The Way I Do If I Wanted To, Melissa Etheridge
91. I Live My Life For You, Firehouse
92. Dream About You-Funky Melody, Stevie B

93. Cotton Eye Joe, Rednex
94. Thank You, Boyz II Men
95. I'll Stand By You, Pretenders
96. I Miss You, N II U
97. Give It 2 You, Da Brat
98. Best Friend, Brandy

99. Misery, Soul Asylum
100. Can't Stop Lovin' You, Van Halen

Wow! Look how many I didn't even know! Obviously I wasn't very into the 90s R&B and rap scenes. I remember more songs from when I was 8 than when I was 18. And to those of you who are like, "Since when did Jon ever like Take That! and Sophie B. Hawkins?" I say I'm actually not fan at all. I just had to pad the positive numbers slightly (and I've found myself singing along to both of those songs). Hardly any of the songs that I mentioned that I liked would be songs I'd not tune the station from if it came on the radio.

Take a look at your list. Did you fare better?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

my karaoke song explained

A couple of nights ago I went Karaokeing with some friends. It was great fun. We hit up the Tavernacle. My only complaint was the song selection. Perhaps that didn't matter though. I have this (possibly annoying) habit of picking 80s songs that not too many of my peers remember (or were alive to hear). I like to think that if I do a really awesome karaoke job with a song that's unfamiliar to people, it becomes MY song even more so than the original artist in the eyes of my viewers.

Ultimately that night I went with "Would I Lie to You?" by The Eurythmics. VERY RISKY. Not only was I not extremely familiar with the song, but it's also sung by a girl That's always real tricky. I got up there and immediately said "Alright, sing along if you know the song." To my horror, partway through I realized that the most identifiable parts of the song are actually sung by the BACK-UP singers and the karaoke screen doesn't even pop up words for those parts. I held the mic out to the audience to sing along to it, but it appeared that all my friends had absolutely no idea what song I was singing. There were a few people singing along on my left side, so kudos to them for knowing the words. Actually, I don't know if they actually knew the song or if they just achieved "drunk knowledge" that often occurs during bar sing-alongs.

After I finished attempting to wail like Annie Lennox from the karaoke screened "ah"s and "oh"s, I confirmed with every single one of my friends that they had never heard the song before. I bet they have. They've just never heard me attempt the soul-diva vox of Annie Lennox before.

For your sakes, here is the complete version. It was actually taken from Eurythmic Dave Stewart's YouTube page. He requested no embeds so I had to sorta borrow the video and then upload it back into Blogger. Have you really not heard this song before?



One of my favorite things that Sports Guy does is do a play-by-play of YouTube videos. Thanks to my sick, extensive knowledge of 80s music videos, I'd be totally remiss if I didn't do the same with this one.

0:00 -- The first minute of the official music video is a non-musical cinematic prologue. Such a practice was gaining popularity ever since "Thriller" a few years before.

0:06 -- Eurythmics guitarist and producer Dave Stewart strolls in and (very politely) remarks that Annie Lennox is late. He A) appears blind and B) sounds exactly like George Harrison.

0:14 -- Evil motorcycle guy drops Annie off. This is part of an 80s trend where hip, strong-willed, short-haired blonde women are shoved around by an abusive jerk in their own music videos (see "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday). This also showcases another trend in 80s videos, tv shows and movies. The heroine always either escapes FROM a guy on a motorcycle, or escapes WITH a guy on a motorcycle.

0:28 -- The record company bleeps whatever the jerk calls Annie. I scoured the net, but couldn't find the uncensored, uncut version anywhere.

0:40 -- Dave Stewart seems like Alan Rickman in Die Hard until he speaks in his supernally gentle voice. After offering his shoulder and soothing beard to lean on, he reassures her: "Just be yourself tonight." The album this song appears on is entitled Be Yourself Tonight. Some albums are named after songs; some are named after incidental lyrics in the songs. This may be the only album named after a throwaway cinematic sequence attached to the beginning of one of the song videos.

1:00 -- The song begins right at the one-minute mark. Right away we hear that they've bagged the synth-heavy nature of the band's stereotype. Now they're channeling motown soul.

1:14 -- Yeah, that's right! It's the 80s and we're swimming in one mother of a catchy guitar riff!

1:20 -- The music video trumpeter misses his trumpet lip sync cue by two full seconds. Today, music videos will go an extra day of shooting to fix such a problem. Back then? Whatev.

1:30 -- Annie comes in NOT singing the main chorus. She then slyly crosses in front of the back-up singers the camera is focused on. It's almost as if she's playing back-up to the back-ups. She is trying out her Aretha-like pipes, though.

1:58 -- Annie achieves femininity through her hip-shake on the catwalk. This absolutely extinguishes the model of androgeny that she achieved in the "Sweet Dreams" video.

2:14 -- Annie actually sings the words "would I lie to you?" These words were NOT provided in the karaoke version I sang.

2:30 -- Inexplicable 80s music video moment #1: Annie breaks the fourth wall of the club setting by singing directly to the camera. She also sings without the microphone up to her face. Was this a video shoot oversight or was it some sort of surreal artistic decision? I choose the latter.

2:44 -- The bad guy unwittingly provides a sweet motorcycle sample to compliment the song a la the 60s favorite "Leader of the Pack."

2:59 -- Dave inexplicably switches from lead to rhythm guitar. Video shoot oversight or artistic decision? I choose the former.

3:04 -- A businessman ballerino jumps onto the stage and pirhouettes back into the crowd. It's awesome. Unfortunately, Generations X and Y would NOT let such a thing happen today. They'd just ridicule the guy to tears.

3:22 -- The bad boyfriend is back from whatever errand he had to run. It apparently took him 142 seconds to accomplish it, whatever it was. Say what you will about the guy -- he is quite efficient.

3:54 -- It suddenly strikes me that all 80s British bandmembers with beards must also wear black leather jackets. Actually, Peter Hook, bassist of New Order (pictured), is the only other example that I can think of. He's worth at least five bearded Brits, though.

4:02 -- The motorcycle jerk plays right into Annie's game and attempts to continue the argument with her onstage. Bad move. By this point, Annie obviously has the crowd on her side. Plus, he doesn't even have a microphone so we don't know what he's saying. My guess is that he's abandoned the argument and has moved on to simply psyching her out. "You're singing is flat! FLAT!"

4:12 -- Annie shoves him into the crowd although he obviously stage dives and enjoys it. Either it was late in shooting or Annie, Dave and the rest of the band actually won the guy over through their awesomeness (see Rocky IV)

4:29 -- The return of the businessman ballerino! No shame! You go guy!

4:40 -- Now we have a fade into Dave doing a sweet stage jump in slow motion and not timed to the music. Perhaps this was to offset the fact that the song ends in an audio fade.

4:49 -- The horn section is randomly roaming about center stage! Chaos has replaced order and anarchy rules -- which is easy to do and look cool in a music video because the music is dubbed in anyway.

4:53 -- Two awesome things happen within a short timeframe. The same trumpeter who missed his cue at the beginning of the song now redeems himself by spinning his instrument on his finger like he's in the wild west. Right after that, Dave chucks his guitar into the crowd and the instrument KEEPS PLAYING THE SONG!

5:02 -- Obligatory 80s robot dance.

Well, there you have it. Keep in mind, I love this stuff. I AM NOT MAKING FUN OF THIS SONG OR VIDEO! Don't get any mixed messages.

Next time we're at The Tavernacle, you're singing along with me!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

cinematic experience plug

Well, it's probably about time that I announced my latest collaborative venture. Chances are you already know because John and Cameron have already announced it and their blogs are way more popular than mine.

I edit The Cinematic Experience. It's the movie review show that I agree with nearly 75% of the time. Here's a great embed for your a'ganderin'.



It's supposed to be on tv I think. Maybe it is. Ask the guys. In the meantime you can see the whole selection on YouTube.

how i survived...


Amazingly people are still asking me how the game was. Strangely not everyone heard what happened (or more accurately didn't happen) to me.

I LOST THE TICKET!

Yeah, I know, right? What's up with that. Joe and Beau (hey, that rhymes!) and I were enjoying a wonderful lunch at Charlie Chow's and on the way out I felt my back pocket where I kept the ticket and it was totally gone. I was wearing my corduroy pants with shallow back pockets so it must've fallen out on the way to the restaurant. Either that, or the family of Utes picked my pocket because they didn't want their stadium corrupted by someone who obviously blued himself.

I told everyone that if anyone deserved to lose his ticket, it was me -- since I've been so wanting to sell it for a quick buck. Still, as long it's gone, the buck would have been nice (200 would have been far nicer)

Three quarters would have been pretty fun, but the fourth would have been horrendous, so it was nice to watch on a comfy tv with some other cougars. I'm not saying than I and my friends are older single women on the prowl (at least not all of us). I'm just re-iterating that yes, I am a BYU fan -- even more so than I was in school.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

martyr for love


This may be the last time any of you see me.

As of this writing, I haven't been able to get rid of my BYU-Utah football game ticket, so it looks like I'll have to go to the game. Last time I went to the BYU-Utah game at Rice-Eccles stadium I SWORE I'd never go back.

Now, strangely, I'm going to torture myself all over again. Actually, I guess I'm going to allow 45,000 of the red menace to torture me. Maybe I'm a lousy fan, but I don't see BYU winning this one. The odds are clearly against us. That's still irrelevant though. I simply don't get the same joy out of the spite that comes from sticking it to the other team on their own turf. It's either freak out and get miserable or break even with me. I simply don't get enough pleasure out of sporting events.

Nevertheless, we got the tickets several months ago just to go to this game and now we're committing. It could be rough, and as I've said I may not be coming back. This may be the biggest game ever in the rivalry. I think fans on both sides will be taking this one personally. It could be life-threatening.

Tell my story.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

the ascendancy of the child

I should have posted this news a while ago. People and Wikipedia have both confirmed that the child of promise foretold by the comedy gods entered our realm on October 25th, 2008. His name shall be known to us mortals as Archibald "Archie" William Emerson Arnett and he weighed 129 ounces upon gracing our world. Let us rejoice by watching Arrested Development, Hot Rod, Mean Girls and DVRed Weekend Updates all at once on several different tvs.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

some dvd extras minus one dvd

I apologize to all you people who are constantly like, "the book is way better than the movie." This blog is pretty much turning into a video blog. I like movies a lot, okay?

Anyway, through the same cinematic computer magic that went into colorizing It's a Wonderful Life, I've managed to colorize Cyber Stalking Slaughter on Center St.



Also we've compiled a clip show full of outtakes from the movie this year. You'll probably think these are funnier if you were actually there, but then again most of these funny moments will probably be new to you if you weren't. It's sort of a good catch-22.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

it's election day! yay!

Vote Nader/Gonzalez btw. I probably should have mentioned that sooner. I'm friends with Nader on Facebook. I'm not friends with Gonzalez, though. Hmmm.

So I just got done voting. I figured I'd go early to avoid the lines at the polling place (very successful) and also to avoid the lines at Ben & Jerry's. It was empty! But apparently they don't start giving away the free ice cream with the voting until 5:00. So I imagine it'll be plenty crowded by then. Dash it all! To make matters worse, I was in such a hurry to get out and Barack the vote (except I didn't actually vote for Obama) that i didn't bother changing my shirt from yesterday. That means my sticker is on yesterday's shirt and if I want the free ice cream people will probably see me wearing the same shirt. Yes, I know I can just transfer the sticker, but I'm always wary about the diminishing adhesive returns of sticker transference.


They really should change the stickers don't you think? What's to stop someone from just wearing their sticker from the previous election and claim that they voted this year when they actually didn't? The government should encourage people to vote every year. The sticker situation is just way too corruptible.

Here's a video I like. Lots of people hate Peanuts. I sure don't. I love those kids. It's actually kind of reminds me of the movie, Kids. Where are the adults? Anyway, this clip is great because it not only addresses the election, but it also discusses two other things that have been on my mind lately -- religious political policy and "Treehouse of Horror XIX." Anybody catch the Halloween Simpsons yet?




Yeah... I forgot to resize that video. You may need to squint.

Oh what the heck. Here's a favorite clip from this year's special. It's not The Great (Grand) Pumpkin stuff, but it's pretty good. AND REALLY GRUESOME!